Should children as young as FIVE be taught about pornography? Parents reveal fears

SCHOOLS should teach children about the dangers of pornography as soon as they are old enough to use the internet, many parents argue.

Lessons in pornography should be introduced into sex education, head teachers have said

The majority of parents do not want to be left to tackle the issue of pornography alone, a new survey has revealed, and many have said they need help to educate their youngsters about the controversial issue.

Shockingly, a large proportion of parents think that pupils as young as five or six should be given lessons on the subject.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), which conducted the poll, said that many young people are exposed to explicit materials online and on mobile phones, and need to know how to cope with this.

The survey, which questioned around 1,000 parents, found that six in ten parents are worried or very worried about their sons and daughters seeing violent or sexual material on the web.

Despite the vast majority of parents feeing confident in protecting their children online, more than 90 per cent now want an automatic block on porn websites to protect their children.

Many said they favoured the introduction of a default block on all pornographic websites – requiring users to “opt in” – rather than the current system that forces households to opt out to keep children from accessing inappropriate images.

Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged that all new computers will soon be fitted with web filters

Young people need to know how to cope with and avoid these distorted views of relationships

Russell Hobby

More than eight in ten also said issues around pornography should form part of sex education lessons at schools, as widespread evidence of children coming into contact with pornography at ever younger ages continues to materialise.

Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged that all new computers will soon be fitted with web filters that can only be removed by parents.

Mr Hobby said: "There is no place for explicit materials in the classroom or school, even in the course of teaching about their dangers, but many young people are exposed to such materials on the internet and phones.

"In the face of this young people need to know how to cope with and avoid these distorted views of relationships."

He added that it was "reassuring" to see that parents believe that schools are part of the support network for their children.

Stephen Watkins, head of Mill Field Primary School in Leeds said that schools should speak to children about explicit material in an age-appropriate manner.

He said he "would not dream" talking to young children about pornography.

"We don't talk about pornography, we do say to them if you see images of naked bodies and body parts then tell us.

"You start at a low level, it is about raising awareness that not everything that comes up on a computer screen should be there."

The NAHT is not the first group to raise concerns about access to explicit images.

Earlier this month Ofsted called for secondary school pupils to learn more about pornography, relationships, sexuality and staying safe, rather than just the "mechanics" of reproduction.

It suggested that many schools are failing to give pupils decent sex and relationships lessons, which could leave them open to sexual exploitation or inappropriate behaviour.